Learning About Graphs

Here's a simple way to teach your children about how to make a graph. Made on paper, letting the kids brainstorm something to make a graph of (at the moment it's very cold here and I'm thinking they are definitely wishing for summertime), here's what they came up with:

Geoboard Time!

Haven't been updating in almost a week. I cracked my tailbone two Saturdays ago and it got a lot worse before it finally starting feeling better. And by that, I mean being able to sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes at a time!

Enough about fractured tailbones! On to math!

My kids love using their geoboards. The ones we have were part of our Saxon manipulatives package to go along with our Saxon math program. If you don't have a geoboard, they are simple to make (and the homemade ones can be used with more materials than the ones we currently have, too). Just take a square piece of wood and mark spots on it to form rows of dots spaced about an inch-and-a-half to two inches apart. These rows, should line up up-and-down and across the board, to form and fill in a large square. Then you simply nail in some small nails (leave them sticking up enough to wrap rubber bands around them.

The kids can use rubber bands to make shapes on the board and it can be used over and over again.

 

For older kids, you could even put the nails in a circle shape (outline only or smaller circles inside the outer one) and let them create a 3-D "Spirograph" design.

I've even seen where someone has taken an outline of their home state, placed the paper copy on a board for their guide, and put the nails in to outline their state. For a really fancy effect, they put nails in the shape of a heart where their hometown is located within the state map, and again, using the "spirograph" concept, made a beautiful work of art. (By the way, this will sneak in a geography lesson.)

The point of the geoboard is, of course, to teach math concepts, but it can also be a lot of fun! Your children will learn to copy designs, learn to create their own shapes and designs, and enjoy the assignment.

Interesting Background Information on 10 Dr. Seuss Books

 

http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/28843/10-stories-behind-dr-seuss-stories

The above link takes to an interesting background info on 10 of Dr. Seuss' books. Interesting reading. Especially about how some of the logging industry wasn't very happy about the book, The Lorax and later sponsored The Truax, a similar book—but from the logging point of view.

Math in Everyday Objects

Have I mentioned that Maddy loves math? This morning while eating her warmed-up S'mores Pop Tart and hot cocoa, she says, "Look Mom, my Pop Tart has an AB pattern! Insisted on taking a picture of it. See it? Chocolate (A), marshmallow (B), chocolate (A), marshmallow (B).

You can teach math lessons anytime, anywhere. No matter what you are doing with your children, there's most likely a math lesson to be found. Whether you are shopping (count the number of cans of veggies you buy, watch for patterns, compare sizes prices, measure (when cooking, look at package sizes, etc.), use timers when the kids brush their teeth and for cooking, etc.

Never miss the opportunity to build math skills!

Free Homeschooling Resource List

Here you'll find an up-to-date list of free homeschooling resources:  http://www.onlypassionatecuriosity.com/free-homeschool-list/.
 

Tangrams

While Kenna did counting practice with her counting bears in math today, Maddy's math lesson found her again using her Tangram pieces. Once Kenna finished with her counting (and since she's counting twice as high as the kindergarten requirements for Day 18 of her Kindergarten year), she also joined in "covering patterns with Tangram pieces". Here are just a couple:

 

Their Two Favorite Subjects: Math & Science

Maddy and Kenna love math and science. They are still playing with the kaleidoscopes they made at Maddy's birthday party.

By the way, they dressed themselves today! Kenna must be wishing for snow with her snowmen pants. Maddy just wanted to wear her print capri pants and her North Carolina shirt. At least Kenna's shirt matched her pants. Maddy's pants are pinks and purples; her shirt sleeves are red.

I've always had a hard time explaining to my daughters why there are dress rules. Out of the 6, 4 of them at a very young age have demanded to know "just who made up that dumb rule". When I didn't have an answer, I finally gave up. So don't be surprised when you see Afton and Kenna wearing a set of patterned pants with an entirely different patterned shirt...their reasoning is "See that green stripe? It's the same color green as this green polka dot." Nor should you be alarmed when you see Maddy running around in her white sparkly dress shoes all winter. 2 of our daughters, I had trouble keeping clothes on at all when they were little, so I'm just thankful they are willing to get dressed and keep their clothes on! And well, on the bare feet. What can I say? I am probably to blame there. None of us like having to wear shoes. As Maddy has said, "It's a Redneck thing and we're a Redneck family." Haven't an answer for that statement either. All I can do is smile.

 

 In math today, Kenna learned about pictographs. She graphed the number of boys and girls living in our home.

While I was helping Kenna with her pictograph, Maddy sorted a bag of change. We worked on coin values, counting the coins, and then determining the monetary value of each type of coin.Our lesson today was centered on nickels and counting by 5. She has counting by 10's down pat...we ran out of dimes when she hit 200.

Typical Sunday With The Sisney Crew

Today, Alayna and Aaron and J.J. and Afton, all came for lunch. This time we tried another new recipe called Picnic Pizza. I tweaked the recipe (yes, I know, I do this a lot of get them to fit into our lifestyle). But it was good and the boys especially thought it was great. And did you know teaching your children to cook will not only teach them to feed themselves as they get older, but is a wonderfully fun way to teach math skills.

I had bought a small beef sirloin roast, partially froze it, and had Alan slice it up into thin steaks. I then threw the steaks, 2 cans of tomato sauce, some basil, oregano, garlic powder, minced onion, about 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and some sliced olives into my Crock-Pot. I cooked it on high for about an hour while we got ready for church. Then turned the pot down to low and let it simmer while we were gone to Sunday School and church. When we arrived back home, I took some English muffins, sliced them in half to form a "bun", place a steak and some of the sauce on it, topped that with shredded Mozzarella cheese, and placed a plate of them in the microwave long enough to melt the cheese. Served them with chips.

My parents popped in for a visit, too. While the kids all hung out outside, they played with the puppies, fed the rabbits, and did an experiment. Did I mention they like science? Today was pretty simple. My son-in-law's idea, actually. They put Mentos candy into a 2-liter Diet Coke bottle (still full of soda) and watched it fizz and spew.

Then off to church to help with a meal for the F.A.I.T.H team, Maddy had Christmas program practice, and then the first night of our fall revival. We are very blessed to have such a great family to spend Sundays with!

Learning About Stomach Acid - And Being Able To DRINK It!

Layna came over and brought an experiment kit for the girls. This cool thing teaches about how digestion works and shows acid in the stomach - and the gross stuff that comes out of the stomach. But with this particular kit, you can, if you are brave enough, DRINK the "gross stuff" that comes out of the stomach.

This experiment was done after they had made themselves a crown to wear!

Here, they are adding the ingredients so that once the two waters are pumped through to be mixed, the liquid travels to the stomach and then begins foaming in the stomach. When the stomach is full, it empties in a flask. The concoction (completely safe), is ready to taste test. Both of the girls said it had a raspberry flavor to it but a very sour taste. No one wanted more than a small sip! But they LOVE playing with the mechanics of the small stomach model!

 

Thanks to Layna's mother-in-law for sending this neat experiment over to the girls. They have definitely enjoyed it so far!

 

500 Page Club

Having a kindergartener and a 1st grader is actually giving us twice the opportunity to cover concepts in math at one time! Today Kenna explored Counting Bears (sorting by color, counting) and Maddy joined in. Then we switched to Maddy's math lesson, with Kenna joining in, to learn about coins (names, values, sorting, counting nickels). They don't look at it as 2 separate math lessons. And at this time, I am not telling them any different! Both of my girls love math and I truly hope they continue to do so during the years to come!


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Today was the first meeting of the kindergarten / 1st grade 500 Page Reading Club. Meeting once a week at the local library. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library group. Co-led by myself and a local kindergarten teacher, Ms. Cheryl.

Kenna and Maddy love participating in their reading club. Kenna received her first library card today! They each borrow 5 books from the library each week.

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Loving animals ourselves, and living on a farm, we believe children should have - and learn to be responsible for - pets of their own. Today, Maddy and Kenna each added a new puppy to their growing list of pets which includes a Cockatiel and rabbits.

They did their own shopping (with assistance of course) for their collars and leashes, feed and water bowls, dog toys, flea stuff, dog Milk Bones, and Puppy Chow. Letting them choose and be there with the $51.73 bill rang up, lets them realize how expensive pets are and that it's important to take care of not just the pets, but also their pet supplies.

We drove a few towns over to pick up their "free" puppies from a friend. We actually sent them $20 in a thank you card to help cover the expense of the wormer and feed the puppies have consumed at during their 9 weeks of life. My Daddy says there's no such thing as a free pet. He's right! They have been wormed, but we have to make appointments to take them for their puppy shots and, when old enough, to be spayed. Maintaining a pet is pretty expensive. But the rewards of pet ownership, and our animals become part of the family, is priceless.

Lots of subjects covered during the time of preparing for and going to get their pets: economics (buying supplies and feed), animal science (animal breeds, selecting a pet, caring for a pet), geography (Where's Equality?), following directions (to reach our destination), math, a field trip, and some life skills.

Fun With Saxon Math

When we began our original homeschooling journey, back when Alayna and Afton were starting their 6th & 4th grades, I had spent 7 months researching homeschooling. I drove our librarian crazy chasing down over 50 books for me, I spent hours on the internet, and talked to anyone I could find that was doing homeschooling. Once we made the decision to go for it, I began round 2 of research into the world of endless curriculum choices. We decided we definitely wanted to take an eclectic approach (which simply means we wanted to use materials, ideas, etc. from a broad and diverse range of sources). I talked to teachers from different school districts, asking for recommendations.

When it came to a math program, all the teachers I talked with had nothing but praise for Saxon. When I asked why, if it was so great, were some of the schools no longer using it, I was told that it was because Saxon was also more expensive. Yet, as I looked into the Saxon Homeschool Program Kits, I was genuinely impressed.

Of all the subjects to be taught, math - especially at high school levels - had me worried. I am not a big math fan. Oh, I loved accounting in high school and can keep business books with ease. But Algebra was not a favorite, and I absolutely hated geometry. If it weren't for a couple of good friends, I would not have passed geometry. The fact that I didn't like the teacher, the subject, or the "encouragement" that the teacher gave me when he told me that he had barely passed geometry with a "D" in college, did not help my situation at all.

So, we chose to go with the higher priced (quite expensive in the upper grade levels, actually) Saxon with the thought floating in the backs of our minds that, if we didn't like it, we would find something else for the next year. The fact that we had younger children coming to also use the curriculum helped ease the price tag shock. But I must say, we not only liked it...we LOVE Saxon Math! With Alayna and Afton, we used the homeschool kits from grades 5 through their senior years.

Last year, we began a new leg of our homeschooling experience when Maddy started kindergarten. The very first subject "finalized" for use was Saxon Kindergarten and we also ordered the K-3 Math Manipulatives Kit. This year, Maddy is also using Saxon Math 1.

I not only recommend Saxon, I also highly suggest ordering the manipulatives, too. Maddy and Kenna both have taken to math with open arms. They love the "hands-on" approach of using the pattern pieces, linking cubes, counting bears, etc. There's also a balance scale and a teaching clock, along with many other things. 

I don't "endorse" too many things. If someone asks, I willingly share what materials we use, but Saxon is the one company product that I speak out loudly for. Easy to teach, easy for the kids to understand, a step-by-step approach that builds from the basic concept on to the next. Yes, a lot of review, but depending on fast your children learn it, the faster they can work along

 The book/grade title were not originally meant to be used as a "grade-level" title, but the schools themselves kind of established that way of thinking. Saxon explains their original intent in this link:  http://www.usingsaxon.com/newsletterpage-2012.php#0412

Stone Soup & More

Just some of the materials we are using as our curriculum...

Stone Soup by Ann McGovern - A folk fairy tale about making soup from a stone. We have a special polished stone that we plop into the soup pot on occasion! Whomever gets the stone in their soup bowl gets (could be a prize, could be to do dishes, etc.). Puts a little fun into a bowl of soup.

Since we are dealing with a 4 & 6 year old, we do our Bible study time out of the NIV Adventure Bible published by Zonderkidz.It recommended for ages 9 - 12, but my girls don't have any trouble understanding it. This kid's Bible is set up in a jungle theme. It includes sections on "Life in Bible Times", "People in Bible Times", "Words to Treasure", and "Did You Know?". It also features book introductions for each Book, a dictionary/concordance, and color maps. This Bible leads your children on a fun, exciting journey through God's Word.

1st Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every 1st Grader Can Accomplish On a Computer (we also use the Kindergarten edition). It's part of a 9-volume series. An "all-in-one" type lesson plans for your homeschool computer lab. Each book includes step-by-step directions to teach and prepare. Full of project samples, reproducibles, rubrics, and more. There are websites tied into the units. Also has wall posters for your classroom. It covers Common Core state standards and ISTE national standards. I liked the Kindergarten edition last year, which Kenna will be using this year, and Maddy has moved into the 1st Grade edition.

While looking for a good language arts curriculum, I run across a 1st Grade Language Arts Success book by Sylvan Learning. We all see the commercials about using Sylvan to give your child individualized tutoring services to help them "catch up, keep up, and get ahead". In all our years of homeschooling, I'd never seen where you could purchase just a Sylvan book. Thought we'd give it a try. This language arts book is actually 3 of Sylvan's techniques combined:  Reading Skills Builder (teaching kids to become detectives when reading), Spelling Games & Activities (including "Alphabet Soup"), and Vocabulary Puzzles. This book is full of activities, exercises, and tips.

Today, while Kenna was getting acquainted with the linking cubes during math, Maddy was using them to "measure" items. Here, Maddy was measuring the length of her pencil. It turned out to be 9 linking cubes long.

Story-Time included me reading Pinkalicious: The Pinkarific Slumber Party to the girls. Maddy read 7 pages of "Too Many Puppies" to me and Kenna. Then I read them the 2nd chapter of a book from the Unicorn Chronicles that Alayna had loaned them.

Science had us studying chemical reactions as we made homemade fabric softener: 1/2 cup Purex Crystals dissolved in 1 cup hot water. In separate large bowl, add 6 cups distilled vinegar then slowly add 1 cup baking soda to the vinegar; stir till dissolved. Add the dissolved crystals to the vinegar mixture and stir well. You can add essential oil if you'd like to, but we like the scent just the way it is. Pour into a jar or jug and cap loosely to avoid the lid from "exploding" off because of the vinegar and baking soda reaction. I actually let the vinegar and baking soda sit a few minutes after the "fizzing" has stopped, stirring often to help the solution "calm". I've not had any trouble with exploding lids. This makes about 1/2 gallon of fabric softener. Use 1/2 cup per load.

Today's lunch menu:  ham rolls (slice of ham spread with Laughing Cow wedges in Chipotle and Swiss flavors, rolled up, cut into bite-size pieces, eaten with toothpick), pickles, carrot sticks.

First Day of School

Here at Sisney H.O.U.S.E., we begin school on the day after Labor Day. Since we don't take off all the smaller holidays, but opt to hold school and learn about those holidays, we get our full year in and still finish our school year by the end of May.

This year's school year began today, Sept. 3rd and we will have 176 days of school in on May 30th. This includes taking off two days at Thanksgiving, from Dec. 24th - Jan. 1st for the Christmas season, and a week off for a spring break at Easter time.

Scheduled activities that fill our calendar at the moment are going to a reading club at our local library once a week, going to a missions class once a week, Tae Kwon Do class two times per week, attending a Fun Understanding Nature (F.U.N.) event each month, and going to science classes hosted by a Science Center fairly near to us.

We are active in our church, and enjoy serving our Lord through many classes, groups, and participating in church-sponsored events and activities.

As our homeschooling experience continues, we will be going on lots of field trips and community events.

I think it is important to teach our children about reaching out and helping others. So, we not only donate to several causes close to our heart, but we also volunteer at our local food pantry once a month. Yes, even the girls help...they help stock the shelves. Even 4 year old Kenna, whom is just learning to read, can match food labels on the cans (or will ask to be sure) to make sure she's putting the donated food in the correct places.

Last year, Maddy was in Kindergarten, and it was a sheer pleasure to teach this child. This year I was a little concerned about teaching both a Kindergartener and a 1st grader. Especially since Kenna won't be 5 for another month. Last year she joined Maddy for class during at least half our subjects, so Alan and I talked it over and decided if she was going to do the work, she may as well be getting the credit for it. And because we don't begin school until September rather than mid-August, it put her even closer to her 5th birthday. Thought we'd give it a try and it she wasn't ready, not a big deal and she could wait until next year.

Today went very smoothly! They shared, they took turns, they waited - or joined in - while I was helping the other with their different grade-level lessons. I think Kenna is going to do just fine this year.

Each morning, during our "Morning Meeting", we do attendance and calendar, say the American Pledge, say the Christian Pledge, say the Bible Pledge, have prayer,  log the weather in on our weather chart, and do a "Where's Dad" on our U.S. map.

Moving the arrow around to "Sunny" on our Weather/Season chart. It's been a beautiful day!

 

Today in math, we used Pattern Pieces and learned about Tangrams.

Counting - And Eating - Bears

Math & Mexico

Just a glimpse at our homeschooling experience today...

In math we used pattern blocks again. After putting together various triangles, squares, and rectangles, and then being told to "make something with your pattern blocks that is different from what you did yesterday," our 5-year old came up with this. Can you see the turkey? I'll give you a hint:  it's wearing a hat. Still don't see it? Try this view: 4 tail feathers, the body, the head with the hat on it, and 2 legs. Good job Maddy!

and...

During Social Studies, we learned about the children of Mexico. We discussed how the children in Mexico and the U.S. are alike and different, their clothing (sombreros, ponchos/serapes, and Maddy has a hand-made dress from Mexico), some customs of Mexico, their language (which Spanish is one of our regular subjects), their food, and about Cinco de Mayo (celebrated by local Mexican restaurants). And of course, what study of Mexico's children would be complete without piñatas (Diego and a monkey)? We also located Mexico on the both the world map and on the North American map.

Maddy's Spanish, in two days, has reached...
      ¡Hola!
     ¿Cómo te llamas?
     Me llamo Madison.
     ¿Cómo estás?
     Either:  Bien.    or     Mal.     or     Así, así.
     ¡Adiós!